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This article was taken from Endtimepilgim.org
Corrie
Ten Boom on Miss
Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch survivor of the Nazi Concentration Camps. Her family had hidden Jews during the German occupation
of Holland. For this they had been captured and sent off. Corrie was the only one to come out alive. Corrie was just one of
the many evangelical Christians sent to concentration camps during the World War II. Her life hung in the balance during an
ordeal that went on for years. But God was with her. Her faith was preserved in and through those terrible trials. She lived
to testify all over the world of how God kept her in, through, and out of that time of tribulation. Corrie and her sister
Betsy made this wonderful discovery. "There
is no pit so deep Corrie
was finally released because of a typographical error. Corrie
Ten Boom has become a beloved light bearer for evangelicals around the world. In
her worldwide travels Miss Ten Boom met with many Christians abroad. Many in the Suffering Church were enduring persecution
just as she had. She met with Church leaders of the underground church in China. There she became aware of what had happened
to the Chinese church in 1949. At that time Mao Tse Tung was bringing China into communism. The American missionaries had
left the country. Chinese Christians entered into a time of intense persecution. During
that period the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine had been the accepted teaching. But there was a problem. And it turned out
to be a serious one. The doctrine had not prepared the Chinese Church for witness under trial. Christian believers were interrogated
and brutalized under the Red Guard. Many fell away from the faith. Other
Christians found the promised spiritual reserves . They endured these tribulations and came through victorious. The
Chinese experience with Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine is a telling one. The
Chinese Church leaders asked Corrie to bring a word of warning to the Christians in the West. The
letter Miss Boom wrote in 1974 has been entitled "Prepared for the Coming Tribulation". In it she has expressed serious
concerns about the popular teaching of a special secret Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Corrie knew her Jesus in a deep and personal
way. She also knew her Bible very well. Her life of victorious witness under persecution demonstrated the truths found in
its pages. The life and witness of Corrie Ten Boom is a rare example of a true saint. Corrie was a modern Christian who embraced
blood covenant devotion to emerge as an overcomer. Corrie's
conviction that the pre-tribulation rapture eschatology was a false doctrine did not come by accident. Her life experience
and a plain reading of the Holy Scriptures had led her to uphold the traditional Pre-millennialist view of a Post Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture. This is the view held by the early Church fathers and by the saints down through 2,000 years. In
this letter Miss Ten Boom expressed a plea. Bible
believing Christians in the west are wise to pay close attention here. The political cover we have taken for granted will
not be with us forever. And one day we may wake up to a different world, even a New World Order. On that day the trumpets will be sounding on an epic day of celebration and alarm. In
such a situation our faith will be put to the test. Corrie's
message is a timely warning to the comfortable western church. The
end time drama will not be all darkness, gloom and hopelessness as we have been told. So
this message to the western church is exceedingly important. Carnal
Christians may be offended by this word of exhortation.
Corrie's
message has been called,
"The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the
death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water,
channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.
My sister, Betsy,
and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred
of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew,
Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room. We may have been
the Lord's only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said,
"In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We too, are to be overcomers
– bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate. Sometimes I get frightened
as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming
true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come
to shouting "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things: This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that
we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world. Betsy and I, in the
concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. It was hard for me
to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy's death, today I am traveling all
over the world telling people about Jesus. There are some
among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers
that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days.
Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints
are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the
Christians were told, "Don't worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured." Then came a terrible
persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, "We have failed. I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to
be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ
across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. Since I have already
gone through prison for Jesus' sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think,
"Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation." Then I write it down and learn it by heart. When I was in the
concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying,
"Nothing could be any worse than today." But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse
that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; I found myself saying, "Hallelujah! In America, the churches
sing, "Let the congregation escape tribulation", but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year
alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers
because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in
our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured
to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation. Several years ago
I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians
were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were
executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in
the district were being systematically murdered. The fourth day
I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they
were looking at each other, their eyes asking, "Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next
one?" The room was hot
and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches.
I told them a story out of my childhood. "When I was a
little girl, " I said, "I went to my father and said, "No, Daddy, you
give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train." "That is right,"
my father said, "and so it is with God's strength. My African friends
were nodding and smiling. " In the sweet, by and by, Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. But I must tell you
something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word
of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained
faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life. How can we get ready
for the persecution? First we need to
feed on the Word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as
we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives. Next we need to develop
a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, We must be filled
with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the
Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and
Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We
will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it. In the coming persecution
we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. Many are fearful
of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including
the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. When I am weak, then
I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the
Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in
yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six
years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him", (Job 13:15) He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!" |